down to a fresh spring under the sea in five fathoms of water and filled their jars returning with them to the surface. Such I take to be "travellers' tales." All the springs that I know of, (and between us, Lieuts. Whish, Stiffe, and myself, I think we visited most of them), were situated on the reefs, many of which with the reefs were left dry at low water.

"There is one about 10 miles N. W. of Manama (which is the name of the principal town of Bahreyn), close to which H. M. Schooner, "Mahi," anchored, and from it supplied herself with water. They took in 700 gallons of good sweet water from it in one day. The spring is about three feet under the sea, and the way they managed was by putting a tube into it, to which a short piece of hose was joined, and the water rising in the tube, was thus conveyed through the hose directly into the boat which lay along side, where it was received into casks which had been brought for the purpose, without further trouble.

Again, there is the island of Maharag, close to the N. E. point of Bahreyn, on which is the large town of Maharag with six or seven villages, all of which obtain their freshwater from springs under the sea or nearly so, situated on the great reef which surrounds the island. At low tide the inhabitants walk out to them and fill their vessels. Proceeding round the island northwards, from Maharag, we first come to one of these springs, on a low flat, rocky islet opposite the village of Biseytin, where it is situated in a basin which purifies itself as the tide falls but is over-flown at high water. A mile further on, are three or four others of good sweet water, all of which are also covered at high tide. The inhabitants of the village of El Dír obtain their supply entirely from these. Further round the island still and opposite the village of Gallali are two more springs on the reef; in these we found that the Arabs had placed bamboos, through which the water was bubbling up; there are also the remains of a building here, in the sea, but on the reef close to the springs. Still further round about a mile or two to the south, on the reef, is a slab of rock called "Bú Shahin" where there are more fresh springs. Then a short distance S. E. of the fort of Maharag is another, still under the sea, at least at high water, it is called " Bú Mahah." Beside it is an old tower and it supplies Maharag chiefly. Thus the island on which

Maharag is situated is surrounded by freshwater springs which, as before stated, are over-flown at high-water; and in addition to these there are others which bubble up through the island itself.

"There are also many which issue through the northern part of the island of Bahreyn, but they appear to be confined to this part of the island and are not found southward.

"I regret that I had not an opportunity of getting geological specimens of the island of Bahreyn, the highest point of which is about 400 feet above the level of the sea.

"Reverting to the spring from which the "Mahi" was supplied with water, I would add that, besides being 10 miles from Manama, it is 7 miles also from the nearest land which is the N. W. point of the island of Bahreyn. There is a snug anchorage close to it in a bight between reefs; the place is called 'Khor Fusht,' and a vessel lying there is sheltered from all winds. It has this convenience, viz. that the water is deep close to the reef, so that a vessel can lie close to the spring. The difficulty, however, is to find the spring, because even at low water, there is from 2 to 3 feet over it.

Lastly about 30 miles N. W. of Bahreyn, near Al Katif, is a small island called 'Deman,' five miles off which, in the sea, is another freshwater spring on a point of the reef called 'Rasal Khali,' it has also three feet of sea over it at low tide."

Having thus added what Captain Constable has kindly given me respecting the "freshwater area" as it may be termed, of the Persian Gulf, let us proceed still northward to the head of the Gulf, keeping on the Arabian side, and the first islands that we pass are those of El Kran, Arabi, Farsi and Hurgooz, which in my last report I have stated to be composed of limestone-gravel milliolite, and still further northward we come to those of Om el Maradim, Garu, and Kubbar, of which the geological specimens now before me give the same composition.

But the point of most interest communicated to me by Captain Constable respecting this part of the Gulf, is that of his having sailed through two floating tracts of Naphtha here at different intervals, respectively close to the two groups of islands last mentioned, making this, as it were, the "Naphtha area" of the Gulf. Of these phenomena Captain Constable states as follows:-

"Near Busra is a place called by the Arabs" Om Gheir"or the place of bitumen;" and close to the town of Koweyt, at the head of the Persian Gulf, is another on the sea-shore called "Benaid el Qár" or "bitumen dyke;" while up at this part of the Gulf I have reason to think that there are also springs of it under the sea, for in August 1843, when in a ship 12 miles N. N. E. of the little island called "Farsi," we passed through a field of it. The surface of the sea was covered with a glairy, oily looking substance which was accompanied by a strong smell of Naphtha.

"Again in October 1859, while sailing from the little island of Kubbar to another close by called Garu, we experienced a strong smell of Naphtha, and presently passed through large sheets of oily substance floating on the surface of the sea. Our Arab Pilot whom I had engaged at Koweyt said that this appearance was by no means uncommon, and that he was certain there were springs of it near this part, and that he knew where to take his boat to collect it, but he did not know how to collect it or he could make a fortune by it."

The last addition to our geological information made by Captain Constable is that obtained from his specimens of the Dehmaniyah group of islands which lie close to the shore a few miles west of Muscat, all of which are formed of limestone like that of the eocene strata of the adjacent coast, while a specimen of old diorite from Khor Fakn, 165 miles further up towards the Persian Gulf, is also of the same kind as that of Muscat.

As regards the heights of the mountainous range called Jebal Akdthur whose extreme summit inland, as seen from the sea close to Muscat, I had judged to be about 6,000 feet,* Captain Constable by triangulation makes this 43 miles inland and 9,900 feet above the level of the sea. The highest point near Ras Mussandum, 6700 feet, and Jebel Bees, a mountain about 25 miles inland on the Mekran coast opposite, stated at a guess in my last "report" to be from 5 to 6,000 feet, is now made by triangulation, to be only 4,600 feet above the sea; but there are points which lie inland to the northward of Bunder Abbas, respectively, 20, and 30, and 45 miles distant, 7,600,

* Geology of the S. E. coast of Arabia in my "Geological Papers on Westeru India," p. 555.-Ib. 532.

and 8,500, and 10,660 feet high, all which, from Bunder Abbas belonging to the Imam of Muscat, and the willingness of the Muscat Arabs at this place to accompany travellers to them, according to Captain Constable's account, might be easily visited. The highest point is in 27° 50′ N. L. inland. At the head of the Persian Gulf, 45 miles N. E. of the village of Delim and 75 miles N. E. of Bushire, are two other points, respectively 10,900 and 10,200 feet above the sea; and between this and the last mentioned mountain at the other end of the Gulf, are points in many places varying from 2,000 to 5,000 feet high, many also of which are almost close to the coast. Thus does the Persian differ from the Arabian side of the Gulf, which latter we have seen to be almost on a level with the sea.

With this, ends all that I have to state from Captain Constable's information and specimens, respecting the geology of the Persian Gulf, which a previous personal knowledge of the coast of Arabia and Capt. Constable's accuracy have enabled me to use as I have done. Captain Constable has now finished his beautiful chart of the Persian Gulf and has handed it in to Government, and with the completion of this work my supply of geological information from this interesting locality ceases; which I regret, as one regrets the cessation of a flow of conversation on a favourite subject from a friend in whose communications one has every reason to place the greatest confidence.

Perhaps there is no part of the world which presents such a succession of striking phenomena as that between Mekran and Mesopotamia inclusive,-beginning with the great area of mud volcanoes in the former, in which the cones range from nothing to upwards of 712 feet high; and then going round by the Persian Gulf, at whose entrance is an area of rock-salt culminating in the island of Hormuz; then the sieve-like state of the earth in and about the island of Bahreyn occupying the middle of the Gulf-the" freshwater area;" and lastly the "area of Naphtha springs," at the head of the Gulf and in the vale of Mesopotamia; all of which are in connection with the great fault and anticlinal axis which bounds on the southwest and south respectively, the highland of Persia, Karmania, and Mekran.

* See Captain Robertson's interesting and valuable "Memoir"-Journal of the Bombay Asiatic Society. Vol III. part 2nd, p. 8, 1850.

Notes upon some remarkable Waterspouts seen in Bengal between the years 1852 and 1860.—By MAJOR WALTER Stanhope SHERWILL. -Boundary Commissioner,-F. G. S.; F. R. G. S.

During several years in which I have been engaged in recording remarkable atmospherical phenomena in Bengal, I have witnessed the formation and dispersion of several very remarkable waterspouts in and near Calcutta ; of these natural bodies I have made a memo. that describes the dates, appearance, times of duration, size, and direction of translation of these remarkable natural phenomena, in the hope, that it may assist any future enquiries that may be instituted into the nature of the laws regulating these bodies; for up to the present time no satisfactory theory has been advanced that serves to connect these phenomena with the general law of physics.

Electricity, doubtless, is the grand mover in the formation, action and dispersion of waterspouts, but its mode of action has not yet been satisfactorily analyzed. These columns are composed of dense masses of vesicular vapours similar to heavy storm, or rain clouds, some portion of the column has generally a violent gyratory motion as well as a motion of translation. Those seen near Calcutta have all been long, slender columns about 1000 feet in length, of a pale blue colour, dark at the edges and pale in the middle; this appearance indicates them to be solid columns of vapour; a glass rod held up to the light would present the same appearance, as would also a barometer glass tube filled with water, or a human hair which is a tube filled with liquid, or any similar object that possesses transparency.

In many cases waterspouts are accompanied by thunder and lightning, balls of fire, or great noise, they uproot trees, destroy cultivation, overturn hayricks and houses, exhaust tanks of their water, drawing up the fish at the same time, showering them down upon dry land and on the tops of houses miles away from the spot from whence taken up: but of the waterspouts mentioned in these notes, not one did any harm or the slightest damage, most of them were dissipated into heavy rain, or were absorbed upwards into the clouds without effecting any contact with the ground. Only one, that seen over Howrah, was accompanied with lightning and thunder. No one waterspout